One is a project, now underway for nearly five years, of critical editions of Strauss’ work, beginning with the operas and published by Schott. This should be fascinating: The currently published scores were almost always hastily engraved for use in the premiere production, and rarely take note of the numerous errata identified post-premiere or Strauss’ amendments as the years went by. Elektra itself has a healthy number of mistakes, some of which are of such long standing that they’ve become accepted.
Another seems to be new versions of the operas for smaller orchestras. Not surprisingly this includes Elektra, undertaken with the estate’s authorization by Eberhard Kloke, a German composer and conductor.
While I haven’t yet seen Kloke’s version, I’m particularly fascinated by the instrumental allocation he’s chosen. For reference, I’m including both Strauss’ original and my own:
There are a number of fascinating aspects to Kloke’s choices, the primary one being the use of instruments outside of the original: the alto flute and the contrabass clarinet.
Then there are some quite eye-opening wind doubling whose genesis seem to be inspired by musical theater world, but which still pose questions. For all of the Heckelphone’s intended status as the bass member of the oboe family, its construction and the requirement of a bassoon-sized reed mean that it is almost never played by oboists, and rarely in the “classical world” is it a doubling instrument, as it requires a dedicated non-oboist to temporarily join the oboe section.
I am genuinely fascinated to see how this edition fares, and look forward to studying it.
